In existing rear lighting systems for automotive vehicles, the display of red colored light to effect tail lights, and in some cases rear turn signal lights, in addition to the brake signal lights causes ambiguity that delays perception of the brake signal, said ambiguity being compounded by the display, during braking, of multiple red colored lights having different meanings. Delayed perception of the brake signal is a significant contributing factor in many rear-end automotive vehicle collisions.
The addition of a red colored supplementary brake signal light at eye level will be only partially effective in improving perceptibility of the brake signal. The plethora of red colored light displayed during normal night driving results in partial habituation of drivers to the color red, said habituation compromising the value of red colored light as the signal of braking, it being required that the said signal be a stimulus evoking an immediate response. In all prior rear lighting systems for automotive vehicles, the potential value of light color per se has been lost in the indiscriminate display of red colored light.
The current invention provides a truly unambiguous, immediately perceptible signal of braking by displaying red colored light only when the brake actuation means of a vehicle is actuated, the tail lights and rear turn signals being effected by light having non-red color. Since drivers would not be constantly exposed to red colored light during normal night driving, they would not be habituated to the color red, and could respond immediately to the appearance of red colored light as the signal of braking.